Today JoAnn Matouk Romain would have turned 70 years old. Instead, she has been dead for over 14 years. On January 12, 2020, JoAnn walked out of a prayer service at Lake Catholic Church in Grosse Pointe Farms and was never seen alive again. Her body was found on the Canadian side of the Detroit River, 30 miles from the church, on March 20, 2020. I posted about JoAnn’s case on January 12 of this year, after WDIV ran a story on the anniversary of her disappearance.
JoAnn was a devoted mother and a devout Catholic. She would not have killed herself. Some of the speculation about how she was walking out onto the shore of Lake St. Clair, then some 400 yards to the water’s edge, in her high-heeled boots to take a gander at the December night sky are beyond ridiculous.
There is a relatively new, ongoing, and important podcast about JoAnn’s death. It seems clear to me that her death was a murder and not a suicide.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/no-one-knows/id1723274491
It is also on Spotify.
As cited in my January post, WDIV (Karen Drew), has done a multi-part series on this case. See also https://gmg-wdiv-prod.cdn.arcpublishing.com/video/news/2024/01/23/full-cold-case-investigation-the-disappearance-of-joann-matouk/?ref=/insider/?ref=/video/news/2024/03/05/local-4-news-at-noon—-march-5-2024/ . Unsolved Mysteries (Netflix) has an episode covering this case. It was covered extensively in a special report to the Grosse Pointe News in October 2020 (subscription required). An article in Men’sHealth had a piece the same month, entitled “Who is Tim Matouk From Unsolved Mysteries?” https://www.menshealth.com/entertainment/a34272268/tim-matouk-now-unsolved-mysteries/ .
The Crime Junkie Podcast covered the case in two episodes.
This is just a sickening case. As you learn in every source noted above, JoAnn’s cousin, Tim Matouk, has been implicated in her death. Matouk was a Harper Woods detective at the time JoAnn went missing, but soon moved to the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office as an investigator. I believe he still works there, although perhaps no longer as an investigator.
This is extremely distressing to me on a number of levels. First, what happened to JoAnn and the way her case was investigated–outrageous. The way JoAnn’s kids–her only advocates–have been treated is reprehensible. Second, Tim Matouk works for Kym Worthy, whom I happen to have a lot of respect for. But this employment arrangement feels very incongruous to me. Third, this man has worked on my brother’s homicide case since he joined the WCPO. I’ve seen his name in the file reports and he met with one of my brothers and my dad on at least one occasion (prior to their meeting with the allegedly repentant AA step-follower, Vince Gunnels). None of this is reassuring, no matter how many people rush to the “he’s a great detective” chorus.
Fourth, I have firsthand experience with how law enforcement closes ranks and covers things up any time they feel necessary. Some detectives, troopers and agents can be manipulative thugs. People around them often look the other way, or do something they know they shouldn’t. You know, like donate evidence in an open case to charity. The history of law enforcement in Southeastern Michigan is littered with such corrupt people.
Jim Cox from Berkley PD. ATF agent Robert Van Hengel. And dirty prosecutors, L. Brooks Patterson and Richard Thompson and their investigator Gary Hawkins. And dirty state police polygraphers like Chet Romatowski. That’s just a short list, off the top of my head. So nothing would shock me about Tim Matouk’s involvement in JoAnn’s case or any attempts by him at intimidation.
A word about defamation. Truth is an absolute defense to a defamation (libel (written) or slander (spoken)). Anyone considering filing a defamation lawsuit as a threat or nuisance has to realize that such a suit can bring bad press and a much bigger spotlight to the situation. Furthermore, it opens the door on things like previously sealed deposition material and other discovery.
Police have characterized the entire Matouk Romain family as “crazy.” This is their favorite form of gaslighting. Jessica Cooper loved to refer to my dad as “senile.” That might work with members of the public who blindly trust law enforcement, but if you listen to No One Knows, you will realize that what happened to this family could happen to yours. This I know all too well, as do other families in Southeastern Michigan. It is a terrible club to belong to.
Nothing adds up in this case and it is doubly offensive that the Grosse Pointe Farms and Grosse Pointe Woods police departments expected JoAnn’s family to eat the shit they were shoveling. Residents of these communities should be haranguing those police departments any chance they get. The PDs’ actions are indefensible in this case.
Manipulative thugs, their coconspirators and enablers do not expect to run into people like JoAnn Matouk Romain’s daughters. At a certain point, their threats and intimidation mean nothing anymore after you strip a family of any expectation of fair play, transparency or accountability in the wake of a murder. Your old tricks and playbook just won’t work here. The gloves have to come off.
To paraphrase Shakespeare–truth will come to light and murder cannot be hid long–at the length, truth will out, though charges may well never come. I no longer believe that the truth will out in my brother’s homicide case, but it sure as hell feels like it will in JoAnn Matouk Romain’s case.
If you have information that could help in this case, reach out to the No One Knows Podcast. (Like the local PDs, the state police or the FBI would help?!)